HAPLESS teenage burglars found themselves in hot water – after posting pictures of themselves posing in a hot tub on Twitter.

The youths, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, crept into David Lloyd Health Centre in Basildon, raided the bar, then jumped into the hot tub to knock back stolen bottles of cider.

The gym’s managers didn’t even realise there’d been a break-in until a member of the public spotted the boys’ picture antics on Twitter and called police.

They were arrested, charged with burglary and wound up before Basildon Youth Court.

One of the boys’ solicitors, Mark Jerman, told the court they probably would have got away with their crime, but for the pictures they decided to post online.

The court heard the four lads had been playing pool on the Festival Leisure Park, where the health club is based, on May 20.

They decided to
have something to
drink. It was
probably not an
offence until that
point

They noticed a fire door at the David Lloyd Health Centre was open, crept inside and hid until staff had locked up for the evening.

When the coast was clear, they went into the main part of the leisure centre, stole booze from the bar, and jumped into the hot tub with their booty.

One of the teenagers then took snaps and posted them on Twitter.

The court heard the boys, three aged 16 and the other 17, were in the building for about two hours.

Before they left, they cleared up and took their rubbish with them so their illicit visit would go unnoticed.

When the gymmanagers were tipped off, they checked CCTV recordings and found footage of the boys running around and even taking a dip in the swimming pool.

Mr Jerman said: “When they went in to the health club, they had no real idea what they were going to do.

“When they were left inside, they decided to make use of the facilities. They decided to have something to drink.

“It was probably not an offence until that point.”

All four admitted breaking into the centre.

Two of the 16-year-olds, both from Basildon, had their cases adjourned until July 15, while the court applied for police caution against them.

The third 16-year-old, from Basildon was given a six-month conditional discharge.

The case against the 17-yearold, from Little Hallingbury, near Stansted, was adjourned until July to allow the probation service to prepare pre-sentence reports Chairman of the bench, Sue Greenwood, said: “This was a pretty stupid act to get involved with. Recording yourselves and posting the pictures on the internet is even more stupid.”